Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #98


Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #98

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              SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT #98
                           10/24/97          

          SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
           silver city, tucson, phoenix, san diego
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1.  SUIT CHALLENGES MANAGEMENT OF CALIFORNIA DAM-
    TRAIL OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE LEADS TO WHITE HOUSE
2.  TIMBER SALE E.I.S. APPEALED
3.  FIVE SPECIES DECLARED EXTINCT
    FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE FAILED TO LIST THEM UNDER E.S.A.
                  _____________________________________
                 
SUIT CHALLENGES MANAGEMENT OF CALIFORNIA DAM
TRAIL OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE LEADS TO WHITE HOUSE
The Southwest Center filed suit in a Sacramento Federal Court on
October 20, 1997 against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
the Army Corps of Engineers for jeopardizing the endangered
Southwestern willow flycatcher by refusing to reform
management of Isabella Dam on the South and North forks of the
Kern River. The agencies have violated the Endangered Species
Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the National Environmental
Policy Act, and the Federal Advisory Committee Act.

Lake Isabella is a flood control dam designed to be kept at low
levels to capture spring floods which might otherwise threaten
Bakersfield, CA. The Army corps, however, illegally overfills the
dam to benefit agribusiness interests, putting Bakersfield and
endangered species at risk. When Fish and Wildlife Service
biologists demanded that Army Corps lower the level of the Lake
and develop a conservation plan for the Southwestern willow
flycatchers, Congressman Cal Dooley (D, CA) threatened CEQ
and the Department of Interior with a national endangered species
crisis Dooley received $216,000 in campaign contributions from
agribusiness in 1995 and 1996 and also received contributions
from the law office representing the water users at Isabella.

Under Dooley's influence, FWS Regional Director Michael Spear
suggested to horrified FWS biologists that the agency "haze" the
flycatcher population to prevent it from nesting. If the birds didn't
nest, he reasoned, there would be no take. When Fish and Wildlife
Service biologists refused this and other schemes, the consultation
process was taken away from them and moved to Washington,
DC. When the White House told the Department of Interior to
avoid an ESA confrontation, Katie McGinty, head of CEQ and
Assistant Secretary of Interior, John Garamandi. met with Dooley.
In blatant violation of the ESA, Dooley was allowed to review
FWS mitigation proposals. He ultimately refused to accept any
changes in dam management, forcing McGinty and Garamandi to
order the FWS to allow the complete destruction of the flycatcher
population living at Lake Isabella.

The Southwest Center is represented in this case (CIV S-97-1969
GEB JFM) Neil Levine of EarthLaw (Denver) and Larry Sanders
of Berliner Law Offices (Nevada City).
    ______________________________________________

TIMBER SALE E.I.S. APPEALED
The Southwest Center has appealed the Environmental Impact
Statement for the Pocket-Baker Timber Sale on the Coconino
National Forest. The E.I.S. proposes to log 10 million board feet
on 6,000 acres and renew permits on two grazing allotments
covering part of the Fossil Creek Wilderness Area.

The timber sale violates the Mexican spotted owl Recovery Plan
by cutting 60 trees over 24" dbh. A total of 65,000 trees would be
cut, including 5,000 trees over 16" dbh, yet the Forest Service will
lose over $250,000 by offering the sale.
                _________________________________________

FIVE SPECIES DECLARED EXTINCT
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE FAILED TO LIST THEM UNDER E.S.A.
On September 19, 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
published a notice in the Federal Register (FR 62:49191-49193)
declaring that five species have been deleted as "Candidates" for
listing as threatened or endangered species, because they have
gone extinct. Candidate species are given no protection under the
ESA. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's systematic failure to
promptly list candidate species a one the greatest abuses of the
ESA.

The High Rock Spring tui chub formerly inhabited three
connected springs on the CA/NV border. Prior to 1980,
groundwater pumping extirpated the chub from the two NV
springs. In 1982, ther California Department of Fish and Game
permitted a business to rear an exotic predatory fish in the same
spring system. It escaped from the rearing facility and extirpated
the chub. It was declared extinct in 1993.

The Marianas euploea butterfly was endemic to the Mariana Islands.
It was common in the 1930s but has been steadily
declining due to habitat loss. A 1995 survey found no trace of it.
The species was declared extinct in 1997.

Three Hawaiian pomace flies with very limited ranges on the
islands of Hawaii and Molokai have been declared extinct.


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Kieran Suckling                               ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive Director                            520.623.5252 phone
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity     520.623.9797 fax
http://www.sw-center.org                      pob 710, tucson, az 85702-710